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tv   Starting Point  CNN  September 26, 2012 4:00am-6:00am PDT

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received is not to take myself seriously. >> seriously. >> yeah. >> i love that. >> all right, that's "early start." i'm zoraida sambolin. short and sweet. >> that's right. i'm alina cho. "starting point" starts right now. good morning, everyone. i'm christine romans. >> and i'm john berman. soledad is off today. our starting point, tough talk on iran from president obama at the united nations, as iran's leader mahmoud ahmadinejad prepares to take the podium today. he's given fiery speeches before. he will inflame an already heightened tension in the middle east? the battleground votes. new polls show president obama ahead in ohio, florida, and pennsylvania. and in some cases, by double digits. can mitt romney win the presidency without the power of these swing states? >> no. and by the way, check out this incredible video. a tornado touches down, ripping through homes and buildings.
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it is all caught on camera. >> wow. a busy morning ahead. our guests include michele flournoy, co-chair of the obama campaign nation security advisory committee. tiki barber, former player for the new york giants, rudy giuliani, former new york city mayor, ben cohen, co-founder of ben & jerry's ice cream and singer cyndi lauper. >> it is wednesday, september 26th. "starting point" beginning right now. first we have some news just in to cnn. two american soldiers in afghanistan were killed today in an attack by a suicide bomber. the attack happened in logar province just south of kabul, afghanistan's capital. a spokesman for the governor of logar said the suicide bomber detonated himself during a military operation. he also said one american soldier was injured. we will have more on this developing story as details come in. a big day here in new york. iran's controversial leader will
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deliver his final address to the u.n. general assembly as president of that country. that address is today. mahmoud ahmadinejad is stirring up controversy before he even begins. he told reporters that israel will be eliminated from the middle east, and that there will be a new world record free of what he calls american bullying. the threats come after this warning from president obama. >> make no mistake, nuclear-armed iran is not a challenge that can be contained. would threaten the elimination of israel, the security of gulf nations, and the stability of the global economy. and that's why the united states will do what we must to prevent iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. >> cnn foreign affairs reporter elise labott is with us. what can we expect from ahmadinejad today? will he tone it down or go out as fiery as he always does? >> i think he's going to double down, up the ante, and hear more of the same. previous years he's talked about american officials being responsible for 9/11, talking
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about that the holocaust never exists. i think he's very sidelined at home. not very strong right now. i think he'd like to use the world stage as a bullying pulpit, if you will, and then when he talks about this new world order, it has a lot of resonance in some of the countries that do feel like the united states and the western countries, the permanent members of the security council, call all the shots. so while he says a lot of things that are, rheric that's very fiery, at the same time, he does have an audience, he's not just speaking for himself. >> people have been asking to tone it down, ban ki-moon -- >> ban ki-moon, u.n. secretary-general said, listen, your last time, why don't you go out like a statesman, tone it down a little bit? the rhetoric between the u.s., israel and iran over iran's nuclear program, very hot. there's a lot of worry that iran -- israel could preemptively strike against iran. so he's saying, listen, you might want to tone it down. but i think that he's going to go in the opposite direction. this is his last time at the
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u.n. general assembly, i think he's going to go for broke. >> i like you said bullying pulpit there. >> we're going to talk with michele flournoy, the co-chair of the obama campaign's national security committee. she's coming up in just a few minutes. iran and its president have been insisting all along they are not pursuing a nuclear weapon. but, bill clinton, he's not buying it for a second. he's calling on international inspectors to verify ahmadinejad's claim that tehran's nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. the former president not mincing words at all with cnn's piers morgan. >> what they're really saying is, in spite of the fact that we deny the holocaust, that we threatened israel, and we demonize the united states and we do all this stuff, we want you to trust us. >> do you trust ahmadinejad? >> not on this i don't. >> president clinton also calling on followers of islam to stop resorting to violence when they hear someone challenge their faith, an increasingly diverse and internet connected world.
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three new battleground states, three key battleground states, ohio, florida and pennsylvania looking very secure for president obama right now. brand-new poll this morning from quinnipiac university/cbs and "the new york times." in the critical swing state of ohio, the president has a ten-point lead over mitt romney among likely voters. 53% to 43%. in florida, the president leads romney by nine points. 53% to 44%. and it gets even worse for romney in pennsylvania. he's trailing the president there by 12 points, john, 54-42. >> those are big numbers. the buckeye state now the undisputed focus of the campaign for barack obama and mitt romney. mitt romney making four stops in ohio this week. columbus, cleveland and toledo today. the president will also be in ohio today. making stops in two college towns, kent, and bowling green. ohio has 18 electoral votes, the seventh highest number in the nation, and we love this statistic. no republican has ever won the white house without winning ohio. that is why it's so important. >> mitt romney's wife ann making
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an appearance on "the tonight show." she was asked about the falout from romney's comments, that 47% of voters won't choose him because they're dependent on the government. >> it's very -- again it's a very frustrating thing because you try so hard to get your message out and you try so hard to let people know, you know, this is a guy that i know cares. this is a guy that cares for the 100%. >> ann romney said her husband's remarks were misinterpreted. take a look at these images. storms on a tear. storm chasers saying at least one tornado has touched down in rural southwestern illinois. the roof of a farm house east of st. louis was ripped to shreds. a tractor was also overturned by the high winds. a number of funnel clouds were spotted in the area but they never reached the ground. and, there were no reports of any injuries. cameras roll as muslim activists spray paint the controversial subway ad. one critics call hateful and racist. suggest enemies of israel are savages. check out this video from "the
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new york post." >> stop her! stop her! >> stop that. >> mona, stop it. >> what are you arresting me for? what are you arresting me for? >> that's egyptian worn activist monaate howy. she says she did this and it was free speech. that's the very argument supporters of the posters used to win the right to put them up. three of the ten posters at various subway stations were ripped or defaced during the first day they were up. >> as we mentioned iran's president mahmoud ahmadinejad will speak at the united nations general assembly today. his speech comes after president obama said the west will do what it must to stop iran from developing a nuclear weapon. >> make no mistake, a nuclear armed iran is not a challenge that can be contained. it would threaten the elimination of israel, the security of gulf nations, and the stability of the global economy. it risks triggering a nuclear arms race in the region and the
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unraveling of the nonproliferation treaty. that's why the coalition is holding the iranian government accountable and that's why the united states will do what we must to prevent iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. >> michele flournoy is the co-chair of the obama campaign's national security advisory committee. until recently she was the undersecretary of defense for policy at the pentagon. she was in the situation room with the president during the bin laden mission. now, michele i want to ask you this, because, the president of iran, mr. ahmadinejad, speaks today. but your former boss spoke yesterday. some people still slamming him for not taking a hard enough line on iran. listen to what "the wall street journal" said. they said, in his u.n. speech tuesday, president obama took a tougher than usual election-season line against iran. the cold reality is, that after nearly four years of failed diplomacy and half hearted sanctions that he opposed until congress forced his hand, neither iran nor israel believe him. essentially saying actions speak
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louder than words. your reaction? >> i think that actions do speak louder than words. and if you look at the record of the president, he has led the international community in posing the most crippling sanctions ever imposed on any country. he has said that all options are on the table. i can tell you from my time in the pentagon that option is very real. it is important that we give diplomacy time to work. we still do have time. the president has been clear and consistently clear in his determination to absolutely prevent iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. there's no doubt about that whatsoever. >> but the leader of israel benjamin netanyahu doesn't say we've been very clear. he keeps calling us to lay out a deliberate red line here. there are people here in this world, key allies, that don't think the president is being clear. >> i think we have laid out a red line and that is iran cannot actually get a weapon. and we've had extensive, intensive talks with the
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israelis. there's no light between us on the intelligence picture, there's no light between us on the policy objectives and we've worked very closely in a number of areas on diplomacy, on sanctions to try to further isolate iran and get them to change their decision-making calculus. and give up the qst for a bomb. >> israel says they could be six months away from a weapon. you're saying the red line is obtaining a weapon itself. that is the red line, when they get the weapon that's when action will come? >> well, i think that all of the intelligence communities, and they've testified about this publicly, you know, they agree, they believe that there is at least a year -- at least a year away, if not more from getting a weapon. but remember, the facilities they're using are under iaea safeguards. there's a lot that we would see if they were to start to dash towards a bomb. so the belief in the international community is that we still have -- we still have some time to work this problem
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before we ultimately have to make a decision whether or not to use military force to delay the program. >> and you say we have time, michele. but the israelis say we don't have time. you say there's no light between us in terms of the intelligence. so why is there so much difference in the rhetoric? >> because, i think the israelis, if they were to try to act alone, have a more limited set of military capabilities to work with. and so their window of decision, if they were to go alone, will come sooner than if they were to rely on the united states in a broader international community to make good on this determination to prevent iran from acquiring weons. >> you know, michele, there's been a lot of criticism over the fact the president did not have any bilateral, official bilateral meetings with world leaders yesterday. he's done it in the past, past incumbents have done it when they were here for the united nations general assembly. obviously personal relationships do matter in foreign policy. and there was an article in "the new york times" yesterday which caught our eye here. it had a quote from a middle east official.
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it said, you can't fix these problems by remote control. president obama doesn't have friends who are world leaders. he doesn't believe in patting anybody on the back, nicknames. you can't accomplish what you want to accomplish with such an impersonal style. do you agree the president has an impersonal style? >> not at all. i think he has met extensively with his counterparts. when you look at bibi netanyahu, i don't think there's a world leader he's met with more. he picked up the phone, they had an hour long conversation. this is a scheduling income patability. he spoke with leaders from egypt, libya, yemen, a number of other countries just last week in the wake of events in the heeft. this is an everyday part of his job. and he takes -- he relishes it. he does it with gusto. he has very strong relations with a number of these leaders. >> yet there is a feeling that he doesn't have deep personal
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relationships with a lot of foreign leaders. which of the foreign leaders is he closest to? >> i think he's very close to a number of our nato allies. to the president of turkey, to a number of leaders across the gulf, and asia. again, you know, i just think it's -- to wage that criticism, it's -- it's not based on the actual facts. and my, you know, witnessing of the president in action tells me that he has very, very close and warm relations with a number of his counterparts around the world. and he works at those relationships. he invests in those relationships. >> michele, we should show some of these latest polls show the president with a lead in some of these swing states, like ohio, and florida, and pennsylvania, in some cases a double digit lead. and romney political adviser said he doesn't trust polling and the internal numbers are looking better. he said after following the obama campaign manager who was kind of optimistically about the battleground states listen to what he said.
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>> they're sort of spiking the ball at the 30 yard line, i know. look, ohio there's still 42 days to go. we are in it by any stretch inside the margin of error in ohio. and the obama campaign is going to have some problems there. >> what do you think? i mean, is it too early to be optimistic with double digit leads in some of these states? >> i think it is early days. i think it will be a close race. but i'm very optimistic that the american people will recognize president obama as the leader, that this country needs. not only in terms of our economy but in terms of leading us on the world stage. which is so important to our security and prosperity. >> all right, michele flournoy with the obama campaign. >> thank you. >> ahead on "starting point" a truck driver gets into a car accident and walks away after exiting through the windshield. you got to see -- yeah, you got to see it to believe it. >> it is amazing. plus the fury over the replacement refs' botched call. this is not going away. in fact it has both presidential tickets agreeing!
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you thought it was impossible. next we will have former new york giants tiki barber. he joins us live with his take. great to have tiki here. >> those replacement refs have a new slogan, close enough! that's fine. have you seen that footage of that call last night? oh, my gosh. oh, my gosh. i haven't seen people this upset over a piece of tape since that anti-islam film came out. well, last night the replacement refs made a very controversial call, many people felt cost green bay the game. well, thank god fans in green bay don't take their football that seriously. whoo! that could have been a big brouhaha. 8% every 10 years. wow. wow. but you can help fight muscle loss with exercise and ensure muscle health. i've got revigor. what's revigor? it's the amino acid metabolite, hmb to help rebuild muscle
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welcome back to "starting point." minding your business this morning, u.s. stock futures are down slightly. stocks closed at two-week lows yesterday. the dow fell more than 100 points. good economic reports yesterday. but then caterpillar said global growth is slowing. that spooked investors. cat cut its profit outlook citing weaker demand for its construction and mining equipment through 2015. but the housing market, this was a good economic news i was telling you about, showing kinds of a rebound. data from s&p/case-shiller shows home prices in 20 major cities has gone up for the past three months in a row. rising back to 2003 levels. home prices are still down about 35% from their peak during the housing bubble. but getting a little bit better
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here lately. data on new home sales out at 10:00 a.m. eastern. it's dragging us all down, the fans, the players, the outrage growing over that botched call heard round the world. what replacement refs handed the seattle seahawks a win over the green bay packers monday night. so, we want to talk about this. who better to talk about it with than new york giants all-time leading rusher, retired running back tiki barber. tiki is here with us this morning. you saw the play. >> i did. >> what did you think? >> it was clearly an interception. and the nfl has upheld that interception because they have to. the game was already over. there's nothing they can do about it. but what's really interesting, and this is just a similar matter of what's happening around the nfl for the last three weeks, what's interesting is if you watch the games, if you listen to the commentary on the games, it's not about the players. it's not about the teams. it's about the referees. and that ultimately is what's really detrimental to the league. >> what is the experience of these referees making these calls? >> a lot of them are 1-aa,
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lingerie league you're hearing reports. these are the lower level of the college referees. because the higher level college referees wouldn't take this job, because it was going to be temporary, two, three, four weeks, then they lose their position in the acc and the big ten. so they decline. so you've got the lower level of the referees. >> what are the players saying? they're at the top of their game and they must be real frustrated. >> the players are starting to really speak out about this for a couple of reasons. one, finally, and we knew it was only a matter of time before it happened a game was directly decided by of a referee's call but also you're starting to see chaos on the field. these refs don't get the respect of the players, obviously. they're yelling at them. they're not getting the respect of the coaches who are in their face. you see a lot of fines handed down to head coaches for arguing with these referees. eventually something bad is going to happen to a player because there's not enough control on the field. >> that's what the nfl players association is saying now. they put out a statement yesterday, they said the decision by the nfl owners to look out the referees
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jeopardizes your health and safety. they say safety is an issue here. >> it is. >> if you were playing, tiki, what would you do about this? what can the players do about this to get a solution? >> take a knee on every play like one of the green bay packers linemen said in protest. really it's hard to do anything. to a man, i don't know all 1600 players in the national football league. they're generally good people. but when you put them on a field on sunday something transforms. you turn into this animal who is playing this very violent, emotional, hard-fought game. if you can get away with a little something extra because the refs aren't policing you correctly you're going to do that. and you're starting to see it. coaches are manipulating referees. we saw it in the san francisco 49ers game, jim harbaugh went up to a referee and said i want to call a challenge here. even though he had no time-outs. he had a time-out. i want to challenge this. the referee gave him a challenge even though he shouldn't have, because he didn't have any ti time-outs. >> how much does this represent
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the referees case? >> i think a lot. the nfl thought these replacements would get overtime and give the nfl the upper hand. i think the regular referees have the leverage now because of so much outrage. the ironic thing is one of the not talked about issues was the publicity and the fanfare that these younger referees were going. we know ed because he's such a personality. by locking them out the referees are getting much more attention than the regular referees ever got. >> we should remind people what the issues are. it is salary. the referees want raises, pension and 401(k)s. the referees want a pension as opposed to a 401(k) and there's also this issue of replacement refs. the league wants these replacement refs to step in if they don't think the referees are doing a good job. >> the regular refs also make a lot of mistakes. some of them are underperforming. that's one of the issues the league talks about. we don't want your bad decisions affecting games. we want the ability to replace you. referees, the nfl wants to bring on six new crews. so if crew five or eight or whatever it may be, is having a
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bad couple of weeks, they can just replace them. that's obviously not sitting well with the current group of referees. >> the criticism has been universal. we're even hearing now from our national leaders. if you're running for office, you're a politician you have to weigh in on this. let's listen to a smattering of what people are saying. >> i thought the pass was intercepted. i thought that the defender hit the ground before there was joint possession. and yes it means that we need to get the strike over. >> i sure would like to see some experienced referees with nfl experience come back onto the nfl playing fields. >> it depends on what state they were in. think were in wisconsin or virginia, you've got to play to what the voters are listening to. >> this is a game we all care about. politics, you can take it or leave it. everyone cares about football. >> it does cross over. >> you think the politicians should be weighing in? >> they're fair. they're interested in connecting with communities, and people who
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are going to vote in two months. so yeah they are going to weigh in. it's going to get someone's attention. if they say i liked mitt romney's response to my green bay packers getting jobbed last weekend i might listen to what else he has to say. >> the seahawks are in big trouble. washington is not a swing state here. >> yeah, you're right. neither is new jersey. so our giants and jets don't have anything to worry about. >> tiki barber, thank you for joining us. breaking news we're going to show you live pictures out of greece where police are using tear gas. thousands are protesting austerity measures. showing you pictures from reuters, monitoring them actually all morning over in madrid there were some violent protests all overnight also against austerity as spain is facing a new government or a new budget actually we'll be talking about tomorrow. but here in greece as you know, this has been sort of the center of the anti-austerity movement. it was the first big country where the government had to start tightening its belt. having people work longer, have fewer government services and
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pay more taxes so that it could get big, big bailouts from the european union. and you can see the people, this is what people feel or do when they're told they have to live on less, and work longer for less. >> it is why these governments are in such a bind, because the central banks and the european community and germany telling the countries you have to crack down on your excess budget, your excess spending, but the people, the population says huh-uh and they're obviously taking to the streets right now. >> that's in greece. we're also watching what's happening in spain overnight. >> we'll keep you updated on that. also ahead on "starting point," it's a case of underage college drinking taken to the extreme. and now, a fraternity is suspended. why this particular kind of partying is really raising the alarms. we'll have a live report. we are all reflections of the people who came before us. the good they did inspires us, prepares us
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and guides us. at new york life, everything we do is to help you keep good going.
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[ laughing ] [ laughing ] [ laughing ] [ laughing ] ♪
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welcome back to strtz strt, everyone. hazing that dangerously crossed the line. a fraternity at the university of tennessee at knoxville suspended over alcohol enemas. students cited for underage drinking, another for disorderly conduct. >> one student rushed to the emergency room over the weekend with alcohol poisoning. the hospital says his blood alcohol level was five times the legal limit. the student who was sent to the e.r. is now out of the hospital. reportedly back in class. national correspondent david mattingly is in knoxville, tennessee. david, what is the latest on this shocking story? >> well, let's say right up front here that the university is saying this is definitely not a case of hazing. but this is a case of alcohol abuse that continues to be investigated. once that student showed up at the hospital with alcohol
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poisoning, the knoxville police were involved, and they're the ones who made the headlines by releasing these graphic statements going into excruciating detail the practice of this unusual and dangerous form of taking an alcohol that they believe was going on at that fraternit house. a source familiar with the investigation confirms to us that police did, in fact, talk to a student who said that practice was going on at the house at that time. and they found paraphernalia, tubing and other things that would be needed to go along with that practice. but right now, the parents of this 20-year-old are adamantly saying he was not participating in that. they're not denying the fact that he showed up at the hospital with alcohol poisoning. but they are saying that they're conducting their own investigation, they're getting their own facts, and they're saying that their son is telling them that that didn't happen. that practice that we're talking about. he said it didn't happen. and that they're concerned now, the defamation of character that is occurring to their son, they're very upset with the
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knoxville police department for having gone out so early with so much detail. but they're saying that they're now saying that they're denying that that was going on. and we're going to be hearing more from them today, possibly, as well from the university officials. and right now, remember, this university has put this fraternity on suspension for 30 days while this investigation is going on. that means they can eat, they can sleep, and they can study, but all other fraternity activities have had to be stopped right now, right in the heart of football season. >> so let me get this straight. the family takes issue with the alcohol enema part of the story. but they're not denying that he had five times the legal limit and he's underage and unded up in a hospital with alcohol poisoning? >> without going into the details, they do confirm that he was hospitalized. they say he was released on sunday, and was back, actually, in class on monday. beyond that, they're saying that the details that are coming out that they say are erroneous and they're fighting for their son's reputation at this point.
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>> all right david mattingly in knoxville. this is a strange one. thanks very much. ahead on "starting point," unbelievable video. a truck driver flies through a window in a head-on crash. the truck driver, we can tell you, is not hurt. details just ahead. >> and in this video, it has gone viral. students protesting michelle obama's big effort to make school lunches healthier. why they say they are starving as a result. rted long ago. it's called passion. and it's not letting up anytime soon. at unitedhealthcare insurance company, we understand that commitment. so does aarp, serving americans 50 and over for generations. so it's no surprise millions have chosen an aarp dicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, it helps cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. to find out more, call today.
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breaking news in greece right now. you're looking at live pictures from athens. police in riot gear are now firing tear gas at some of the 50,000 protesters who have gathered for the largest anti-austerity demonstration in months now. demonstrators have thrown rocks and gas filled petrol bombs. we're going to monitor the story and bring you more as it
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happens. you can see the smoke rising there over the streets of athens. and people who are very, very angry about the austerity measures that are still under way in this country, as it has to -- has to raise retirement ages, it has to raise taxes. it has to collect more -- it has to start collecting taxes in some cases so that they can qualify, greece can qualify for big, big bailouts from the european union. the very future of greece and whether it stays in the euro, using the euro currency, are critical here. and the people of greece do not like the way the standards of living and their lives are changing. >> we will keep you updated. very tense in greece this morning. raging violence today in the heart of damascus. two explosions hit the building that houses the syrian joint chiefs of staff. reports say the blasts were followed by heavy fighting inside the building. iran also says one of their journalists was killed in a blast. all of this as world leaders scramble to find ways to end the syrian civil war here in new york city united nations general assembly. the news of the world phone hacking case will go to trial
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next september. a judge in london set the date earlier this morning as former chief executive rebekah brooks and fellow staffers appeared in court. the scandal forced the paper to fold after 150 years. an army private based in fort hood is facing manslaughter charges after shooting a fellow soldier in the face. the two soldiers were drinking sunday night and watching a football game, police say when private isaac young got a case of the hiccups. his friend pulled out a gun in an attempt to scare them away. the gun went off and killed young. bail is set at $1 million for the accused shooter. she may have tainted evidence that put more than 1100 people in prison. this morning new information on a growing scandal in massachusetts. former state drug lab chemist annie duken is now accused of lying to the health department when she applied for the job. she's already confessed to misconduct, and is the focus of a criminal investigation for allegedly mishandling and tampering with drug samples.
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the health department said duken told them she had a master's degree when she didn't. now you have to check out this viral video of a lucky trucker in russia, barely escaping death. it shows a head-on collision between two trucks after a tractor trailer makes a sudden move. the driver of the smaller truck, he comes flying out of the shattered windshield. there he goes. he pops out of the windshield. this is the good part. he just walks away without a scratch. >> wow. >> all right. more on the middle east front and center this week at the united nations. but there's another crisis that's getting much less attention. 2 1/2 years after being ravaged by an earthquake the island nation of haiti is still struggling to get back on its feet. >> plus hurricane isaac is a painful reminder of haiti's troubles. despite a flood of humanitarian aid from around the world, haiti's infrastructure remains weak. roughly 400,000 people are still living in makeshift housing and tents. >> with us in their first-ever joint interview are the president of haiti and the haitian prime minister.
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both are here for the u.n. general assembly and spoke at the clinton global initiative. gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us. as you know, on this program and cnn in the united states, in the months and now years since the earthquake our hearts have been with the haitian people, as you try to rebuild. and i was struck by, as hurricane isaac was coming, was coming through, we were watching it on the radar, our own reporters were in haiti, telling people that this storm was coming and many people couldn't leave. they wouldn't leave their tents or wouldn't leave where they were because they didn't have another option and they wanted, and they just were not prepared for another natural disaster. so i'm, i'm curious, where are we now in terms how well is haiti withstand another natural disaster? are things better than they were just a couple of years ago? >> i would say that we are very happy where we are today. one year after the earthquake we had about 1.5 million people still under the tents. and todayhat number is down to about 300,000. and it tells you how far we
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came, and how well we're doing. >> you were elected president after the -- after the earthquake. >> when i came into power, first of all, through the campaign i promised to people that i would take them out of the tents. and after promising, we started working. so we came into power ready for this job and barely one year after i came in power, we are about only 300,000 people under the tents. and we're still moving. >> 300,000 people under the tents. where are you moving them to? how well are you building up the infrastructure? >> we have elaborate program and that's why it takes time, because we don't just pay them to get out. we rehabilitate their homes that have been destroyed or we create a better place for them to stay. >> i know you suffered loss of life after that hurricane isaac. how well -- how well is the island prepared now? >> well, right now we are better prepared.
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we have a very strong disaster and prevention management program. yesterday we had a meeting with the representative of the secretary-general of the united nations on this. we have -- i mean right now we're investing funds and putting it into the public budget to be better prepared financially for it. we have the support of several countries to come and assist us in to the disaster prevention and management strategy that we have. i mean, haiti is building ten hurricane shelters which never existed in the country. right now, next year we'll have a place to take the people into shelters, and into assisting them. >> so many of our reporters in haiti for hurricane isaac, they were telling us some of the people in the tents, some of the 300,000 people, didn't even know the storm was coming. even if they did they had nowhere to go. how do you fix that problem? >> first of all, i would say they were aware of it except that they felt alone, and we did our best by taking the kids, and
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the women to schools so they could spend a moment there. it wasn't easy. it was a very first. and in haiti trying to do this type of movement, it was never done before inside the education system. we're having problems today but we have been able to put more than a million people in school. people complain about schools not having been paid yet but they must understand this is a program that started one year ago, and we will encounter problems. >> i know that the united nations special envoy for haiti, which is run by bill clinton announced that they've got $2.8 billion disbursed into the recovery effort. another $2.5 billion still available. do you feel like progress is being made that the money is being used wisely because in this country there's a big election year debate about foreign aid, aid that is spent in other countries that, you know, some americans feel like they don't see results. >> well, in a country where
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everything is to be done, i think, $4. billion is kind of small. and right after the earthquake we had evaluated about $12 billion. so for $4.5 billion, $4.8 billion is kind of small. i must tell you right after the earthquake, that money was used to feed people, to take care of them so it wasn't really engaged in reconstruction. >> prime minister, president martellie thank you so much for joining us this morning. good luck. >> thank you very much. ahead on "starting point," flying a plane with babies crying their eyes out? there may be a way to find peace in the air. and why these students insist that the first lady's attempt to make school lunches healthier is leaving them starving. copies ofy acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan,
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welcome back to "starting point." new guidelines from the obama administration about school lunches is causing an uproar among a few students at least. >> the program is designed to make school food healthier, but it is sparking something of a lunch room rebellion. teachers and students in kansas created this video which has gone viral. ♪ i know i gave up on food months ago ♪ ♪ i know i'm trying to forget but between the feta cheese the pains in my tummy seem to know i'm trying hard to find ♪ so by the time i go to breakfast and you feel like falling down ♪ ♪ i'll carry you home tonight ♪ ♪ we are hungry >> we should explain a little bit. these kids are saying that with the school lunches but if you're a student athlete you're starving to death, it's not
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enough food. >> falling during practice. obviously the people in kansas have a sense of humor. kevin concannon is the undersecretary of food and nutrition at the usda who launched the healthier meals program. he's been visiting schools to help them work it out. and when you watch this video, sir, you know, these kids are saying they're hungry. what's your reaction? >> well, you know, the kids, it's a matter of, as you say, i have been visiting schools across the country. and for the most part schools have made the adjustment to a much healthier diet. you know, we're serving just about the same number of calories as most schools were in the past. the difference being, these are healthier calories. more fruits and vegetables, and you know, less pizza, less of those tater tots, and generally, you know, a much healthier meal for kids. but we're also saying to schools, as is true in that kansas school, you may, for your very active aletes, football players, soccer players, you could serve a snack in the afternoon, that usda is more
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than willing to help schools provide. >> we're showing the old lunch menu, sir and the new lunch menu. you can see from tater tots to applesauce. from, you know, chocolate milk to low fat milk. from canned pineapple to sweet potato fries. it seems as though the epidemic of childhood obesity, one in three kids in this country is overate or obese and so overweight obd obese and so many are getting the bulk of calories from school anyway. that's the point of the whole program. >> it is indeed, and just this week there were martial reports here in washington on the growing problem of obesity. so this is a systemic effort to provide healthy foods to kids. the 32 million american kids who have lunch at school every day. >> there were some kids in this video that were very, very young, and there were obviously some teachers in involved with this video, also. do you think that school administrations are misinterpreting your plans? >> you know, it happens occasionally, that they too rigidly, if you will, interpret
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it, but i've been out at the schools. the first week in august i went to a school in new orleans pap little girl, a first graders next to me. we sat next to each other. she said, sir, if you don't finish your broccoli, i'll finish it for you. i declarerd, that's victory. we're winning. >> that's insane. a kid who likes broccoli? let's find that kid. come to my house. >> i want to look at the previous lunch standards versus the new lunch standards. you show, we'll show on the screen what the minimums are by grade. there you can see k through three, minimum, previously 633. now -- >> on the right, it's the maximum now. saying that the new maximum for people k through 8, minimum, 700 calories. is that enough? >> this came from the institute's medicine, the
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national academy of science. from a pediatrician, the chair, representing the best in science. as we've looked at -- we did an analysis earlier this week. most schools were serving within this calorie range in the past. the difference is more fruits and vegetables. more leafy greens. more orange vegetables and basically a much healthier meal. >> going to be a shock to the system in the near term and you've got to admire the clever videography of those kids, but at some point, if this is what schools are serving, you know, when, next year? two years? three years? people will automatically go for the healthy stuff? >> i think younger children are already making the adjustment. i think it's harder on high school kids. any parent will tell you even at home, it's a challenge often with teenagers to get them to eat the healthy foods. >> do you think the video was funny or did it hurt your feelings? >> i did. i saw it for the first time last night. >> no hard feelings. >> no hard feelings. we love kansas. >> thank you so much.
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under secretary for food and nutrition services. nice to see you. "starting point" back in a moment. this is where you put all the or gapic trush. and then you have ready for construction. i'm susannah, the founder of this movement. this country was built by working people.
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much more ahead on the second hour of "starting point." mitt romney losing ground in three key battleground states and in some cases by double digits. what does the campaign need to do to get back on track? we'll ask former mayor rudy giuliani, top of the hour. and cyndi lauper, a revealing new memoir. surprising details about some of her biggest hits. all that, just ahead. ♪
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good morning, everyone. i'm christine romans. >> i'm john berman. soledad is off today. our "starting point" is breaking news in greece. police in riot gear firing tear gas at protesters. >> battleground votes new poll show the president has the lead in ohio, florida, pennsylvania, but mitt romney is not backing down. >> we have a question about what course america's going to take. i represent one that will create more jobs and more take-home pay. the president represents more of
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the same. >> it's a plan, what's the plan if he can't capture those states? and cyndi lauper a revealing new memoir. she says her iconic hit "girls just want to have fun" almost didn't get made nap would be a tragedy. imagine life today? it is wednesday, september 26th. "starting point" begins right now. we are going to begin with breaking news from greece. new images from athens where about 50,000 pro festers filled the streets in the largest anti-austerity demonstration in months. throng molotov cocktails. >> protesters angry over the latest les of austerity. organized by the country's two
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biggest unions who say years of saifice imposed by dcbudget cut it's have nod let to improvements in the economy. the biggest demonstration we've seen. >> saw them in spain. still a problem in a lot of countries in europe. joined by an incredible panel of experts, analysts and just plain good people. jim, "time" magazine. and a foreign affairs writer and writer for the "new yorker." >> what's happening in greece and the politics and the like. politics and the battle for the buckeye state. president obama, mitt romney both campaigning there today. look at the poll from cbs and the "new york times." >> showing in ohio now the president has a 10-point lead over mitt romney among likely voters. 53% to 45%. that number's going to jump off the screen for a lot of people in this country. ohio, 18 electoral votes, seventh highest in the nation
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and again no republican has ever won the white house without winning that number. >> how many times have we said that? >> say it every time. >> jim acosta has that stitched into his t-shirts. hi, jim. traveling with mitt romney from ohio. >> reporter: that's how that. good morning. i think mitt romney has also heard that once or twice. thanks to john berman for bringing that up again. rolling up on a mitt romney event getting started in a few moments in westerville, ohio, outside of columbus. mitt romney goes then up to the northern part of the state, hit the cleveland area and toledo later on this evening. we tried to talk to mitt romney about the struggles he's having here in ohio before the poll came out this morning, which shows that ten-point lead. rather extraordinary heading into this critical stretch of the campaign, and when i asked mitt romney about this, he said that, well, polls go up, polls go down. he didn't show any concern, if he had any at that point, but during the course of the interview we talk and foreign
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affairs, about the president's speech at the united nations and recently mitt romney has been going after the president accusing him of trying, to what he called, fool people about his record, and i brought up the fact that fact checkers have also taken issue with some of his own ads and some of the things he's had to say out on the campaign trail. here's how he responded to that. >> we've been absolutely spot-on, and any time there's anything that's been amiss, we correct it or remove it. the president, on the other hand -- >> even the welfare ad. >> absolutely. look, it has been show time and again that the president's effort to take work requirement out of welfare is a calculated move. the same thing he did with regards to food stamps. >> reporter: now, i should point out we talked to the romney campaign and asked about removing or a factual accuracy in that spot and they did not get back to us. tried to contact three different officials with the romney
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campaign and got no response in the last 128 or so hours. firing back on the claim romney made in our interview the president took the work requirement also out of food stamps. another fallacy. we are on the press bus right now getting ready to go into this event i should throw back to you. this is going to be a busy few days for mitt romney. he's going to be in ohio today, virginia tomorrow and heading into debate prep, as you know. the first presidential debate next wednesday, one week from today. >> a busy few days for jim acosta, too. >> thanks, jim. >> literally, rolling through ohio this morning. so cool. we are now joined by rudy giuliani, of course, the former mayor of new york city. a former presidential candidate himself and important to note this morning also a support every supporter of mitt romney. i would like to greet you with the polls from the key swing states. ohio, florida and pennsylvania. >> this is someone who in 2004
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sat, i think, in the cnn studio about 6:00 in the evening, and the exit polls had john kerry winning 66%. the day of the election. not cnn. fox, abc, nbc. i was on nbc with senator kennedy discussing with tom brokaw the cabinet john kerry was going to pick. so -- >> the polls are all wrong? a ten-point lead? >> the poll's not wrong. but a poll can be a sample of the 2008 election instead of a sample of the 2010 election, and i don't know what the 2012 election's going to be. the pollster doesn't. he's guessing at it. is obama ahead in the key states right now? yes. is he ahead by enough so that romney can't overtake him? you'd have to be a fool to say that he is. there's too much to go. debates. we got a mideast -- who knows what's going on in the mideast. looks to me like the obama
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approach to the midsoutheast falling apart in front of our eyes. you see it on television every night. >> you do see that president obama is ahead in the key state? >> i believe obama is ahead. if i were the obama campaign i'd feel a little better. feel like things are ahead, we're working but nervous we've got four debates ahead, and a mideast. who knows what's going to happen next? the obama approach to the mideast is not working. iran now has three times more enriched you'uraniuyou'ruranium president obama came into office. his asproech not working. egypt is trying to put sharia law. three guys walked out of parliament because they're worried that egypt's going to become a sharia state. an american ambassador killed for the first time since jimmy carter. 30, 40, demonstrations against america. >> and pulling out of iraq and afghanistan? >> that might be the problem. >> the problem is -- >> no, no. the prident killed bin laden,
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great, wonderful. applauded for him. nobody applauded more than they. tried to do a hollywood movie. gave out classified material. i give him credit for getting bin laden. i think he believed, now i got al qaeda, now on to asia. i think he underestimated the islamic extremist terrorist danger in the meefrt aiddle eas they're being so careful about the demonstration in libya was spontaneous. the u.n. ambassador saying that. that's an idiotic remark. that was not a spontaneous demonstrations. i know terrorists's they don't show up with propelled hand grenades and mortars at spontaneous demonstrations. >> libya has people and militias armed to the t. >> they show up when they have a purpose in mind. by the way, just happened to be september 11th. you think maybe something would go off in susan rice's head that it was september 11th that this happened?
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why did they put it out? because he didn't want his narrative in the middle east contradicted. things are moving in the right rection. things aren't moving in the right direction. they're moving back in the other direction and he made a lot of the wrong bets. get rid of mubarak, gadhafi. >> you think getting rid of mubarak was a -- >> i probably agree with hillary clinton. that mu babarak moved out more carefully with more emphasis on what comes about mubarak as opposed to, we move out, an ally of the united states, and replace it with a guy who would like to have the blind sheikh return to egypt, the man who wanted to bomb my city, was responsible for the attack in 1993 on the world trade center. you don't think things like that destabilize the middle east and make people wonder in the middle east about president obama's judgment? >> governor romney said he would
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support democratic values. on another hand saying he would basically fund candidates to win that are friendly to the united states. how is that espousing democratic values? isn't it a little inconsistence there? >> not at all. first of all, take a look what was going on in egypt and realize not netly democratic values espoused. if i see the islamic brotherhood, i don't tear what face they're puts on, i've studied this and investigated and prosecuted for 35 years. you tell me the islamic brothers have changed their stripes? you're too naive to the protecting the united states of america. >> the muslim brotherhood. >> yeah. we didn't look behind this enough. we didn't look behind wa we were creating. it doesn't mean it wasn't going to happen, were ut it should have happened much more gradually. exactly what jimmy carter did in iran. >> sdts that estimate how much influence we actually had? his bus was leaving the station in egypt.
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mubarak was on his way out. hillary clinton and others were trying to stabilize the situation, get a transition, but from my report and my understanding we didn't have as much influence as you're arguing we do with hosni mubarak. we didn't have the ability. >> because we didn't try. >> and the -- democratic government. it srchlts maybe, maybe. maybe it is. maybe it isn't. i don't know how legitimate -- >> it might nob the party -- >> i don't know how legitimate the election is. >> president obama did speak before the united nations yesterday. he spoke a lot about his policy in the arab nations, in the middle east and he also spoke a little bit about iran. i want to know, and we talked to an adviser earlier to president obama and she laid down what she thinks is the red line for nuclear weapons in iran. listen to what she said. >> i think we have laid out a red line. that is, iran cannot actually get a weapon, and we've had extensive, intensive talks with the israelis. there's no light between us on
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the intelligence picture. no light between us on the policy objective and we've worked very closely in a number of areas on diplomacy. >> the red line did -- that's the gray line. not a red line. what kind of weapon? how enriched? at what point? is the red line three months before they get the weapon, but when they have the capability to put the weapon together in two days? these are enormously technical questions. i don't expect her to lay out the red line. i'm not criticizing her. what i expect from my president, republican or democratic president, sit down with the leader of the country most affected by this. probably our greatest ally over the last 30 or 40 years. i don't care if you like netanyahu or you don't. i don't care if you're a president who can talk to people or can't, as bob woodward points out in the book about obama he has trouble doing. i would sit down with netanyahu, have an eye-to-eye conversation, make a critical decision and let him know the red line. i would let him know the red line if there is a red line. i'm not sure there is.
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>> you don't think the president has to make a public statement about a red line, putting you at odds with mitt romney? >> make a statement to netanyahu. he and netanyahu have to agree on what the red line is. shake hands on it. let me finish. >> do they have to agree? the main thing here is that the united states and israel disagree over what that red line is. president obama told netanyahu pretty clearly what the red line is. >> no, he -- that's not a red line. that's a -- that's a concept that when they have a weapon. here. here's one of the great fears of iran having nuclear materiel. if iran that nuclear materiel, gives that to terrorist groups. the biggest responsibsponsor te handing armaments to terrorists as we speak. at least 25 different groups. if they have nuclear materiel,
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how easy to give this to terrorist groups, let them explode dirty bombs in new york in florida, in texas -- got to finish, and then lie about it? ahmadinejad lies about everything else. whether they're going to become nuclear. why wouldn't that become the red line when they become capable of handing nuclear materiel off to terrorist groups? because the idea of dirty bombs in american and european cities is a very realistic possibility that iran could do. >> back to john's question. you disagree with romney on the, on obama saying publicly what the red line is. why is romney, isn't he pushing noor? >> i'm not sure he's pushing -- i think he's pushing for him to have one. >> no, no. >> say it explicitly. >> we can disagree. far as i'm concerned, you can, cannot announce it publicly. i'm concerned do you have it privately? doesn't have it. it's a gray line.
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not a red line. it i were netanyahu i wouldn't know what the hell that meant and second hasn't said he would use military force. the president keeps out two phras from his voe vocabulary. >> all options are on the table. come on, mayor, it is military force and yesterday said i'll do what i must. >> you say all options on the table, you sound like jimmy carter and keep hostages. you say, i'm going to bomb you -- >> the second person who's brought up jimmy carter before the election. >> i'm going to bring up something else. let me finish the thought. >> quickly. >> if you say i'm going to bomb you, you look like ronald reagan and you release the hostages. >> you'll find a lot of quotes saying all options are on the table. >> you can also find a lot of quotes from ronald reagan, i will use military power and never hear one from barack obama nor the words, islamist extremist terrorist whose carried out attack on our
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ambassador and killed him. instead, a bump in the road. a bump in the road? >> thank you so much, sir. >> thanks for joining us. the rest of the top stories. two american soldier, killed in an attack by a suicide bomber in afghanistan. a third american soldier injured there. the attack happened in the a district just south of afghanistan's capital of kabul. a spokesman said the suicide bomber detonated himself during a military eration. a fraternity at the university of knoxville is a suspended over alcohol enemas. 12 students cited for underage drinks, another disorderly conduct. one student rushed to the hospital with alcohol poisons, blood alcohol level five times the legal limit. he is out of the hospital reportedly back in class. and pictures out of rural southwestern illinois of a tornado touchdown. the roof of a farmhouse ripped to shreds. the tractor overturned by the high winds. a number of funnel clouds spotted that never reached the
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ground. thankfully, no reports of injuries. turns out the nfl replacement ref mistakenly calls an interception a touchdown has only four years of officiating experience and none above the division iii college level. way different than pro football. one thing to blowing it. an eye doctor is offering backup officials free lasik surgery. >> the referees had vision issues. we decided we could help them with that. >> also review the rules of football with any replacement ref who takes him up on his offer. that is genius marketing. >> absolutely very clever. his name is christopher smith. ahead or "starting point," ben from ben & jerry's ice cream trying to put the freeze on big time campaign cash. what he wants you to do with your money to make a point. plus, an extremely tough
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call today. parents, tapick your favorite k. one father says -- it's easy. [ woman ] it's 32 minutes to go time, and the candidate's speech is in pieces all over the district. the writer's desktop and the coordinator's phone are working on a joke with local color. the secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategist's tablet. and while i make my way into the venue, the candidate will be rehearsing off of his phone. [ candidate ] and thanks to every young face i see out there. [ woman ] his phone is one of his biggest supporters. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center... working together has never worked so well. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center...
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why they're always there to talk. i love you, james. don't you love me? i'm a robot. i know. i know you're a robot! but there's more in you than just circuits and wires! uhhh. (cries) a machine can't give you what a person can. that's why ally has knowledgeable people there for you, night and day. ally bank. your money needs an ally. welcome back to "starting point," everyone. this presidential election is expected to be the most expansive in history. one estimate puts the final tab at close to $6 billion with a b. when you include spending by super pacs and other outside groups. >> the co-founder of bep & jerry's ice cream says money in politics is destroying us. launching a grass roots campaign called the stamp stampede. asking people to stamp campaign
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finance reform slogans on dollar bills and is with us. brought the stampers and dollar bills to show us. first, i'm a money reporter. my big concern, we're not supposed to deface the american dollar. how is this legal for to you put things on the american dollar? are you sure? >> it's actually legal. we've consulted with a lawyer. when you read the actual law, it's clear that they've anticipated people writing on or marking dollar bills. because it says that you cannot obliterate the bill. you cannot change the denomination. >> your point you want people, other people to get a dollar bill back from the grocery store or whatever and be reminded, you think, that money is destroying politics? >> well, it's not just that i think money is destroying politics. i mean, 80% of the population, republicans and democrats alike think that money is destroying politics. >> on the screen saying corporations are not money. money is not free speech. stamp money out of politic.
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you know -- >> exactly. >> is it driving politicians, it's legal to justify this endlessly? >> yeah. here's how they work. it's pretty easy. up know, it's we don't want to just tell them what it says. we want them to see what it says. right? >> you propositioned you're not going to jail for this? >> absolutely not going to jail. >> are people really using dollar bills to bribe politicians? >> well, sometimes -- sometimes we get to stamp hundreds. >> are you concerned, though it seing wronghñp message eating jerry garcia to go deface their dollar bills? >> this is interesting. monetary jujitsu. using money to get money out of politics. the reality today is that the onlyeople ose voice can be heard are people who hav gobs money. and by stamping dollar bills,
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anybody, it's a level playing field. anybody can make their voice heard just as much as anybody else. >> so in the primaries i was following super pac money. the first time this enormous amount of money. following the money, the rick perry super pac money. huge, gobs amounts of money spent on his behalf but not coordination with the campaign, technically, aened if you looked how much money was spent, we should be having a president rick perry. >> yeah. he lost badly. >> but it didn't work. how do we know that all of this money is actually buying anything if there's so much money working in cross-purposes. you can call it the law of returns at some point? >> i wonder at long last we are reaching the point of returns when it comes to especially television advertisement? a great use of the grass roots communication, but is it possible there is finally a limit to the public's tolerance and their ability to be impacted and affected and have their opinions swayed by something as simple as a television ad? >> well, i think that what's
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more to the point is that the only people whose voice can be heard are those that have gobs of money. >> did you -- >> they are drowning out the voice of everybody else in the country. >> did you give to any campaigns this year? >> you know, i might have given to some local or state level, but nothing on the federal level. >> i just want to follow-up on jim's point, because it seems as if while these big money is going into super pacs, kind of the things had you're doing with the ben & jerry foundation and true majority and some of the things you're working with, advocacy programs are using a different type of currency also making an important message. i'm curious how you see this working. how you feel this will get people to use their voice? seems a little gimmicky to me. i don't know. >> gimmicky? i mean, how else is the average person make their voice heard?
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when you stamp a bill -- this is stamped money out of politics. >> your real problem is, nobody uses money anymore. >> that is a major problem. >> sorry. great having you here. thank you for this. >> the real thing is here -- >> sure you can stamp the money? >> absolutely. >> money's not -- not opposed -- all right. ahead on "starting point," everyone, as we stamp the money here, this might be an easy question for you to answer, but not one you want to admit. do you have a favorite child? >> my mom told me i was the favorite child. >> of course you were. >> one father says, yes. it's not a hard choice at all, but it is today's "tough call" coming up next. ♪
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ome backo "starting point," everyone. this is a tough call. a father starting a et who'd debate on the web after admitting he has a favorite xhild. >> buzz bishop put up a clog post, the birth of his son zachary changed his life. he's the favorite of the two sons, because he can do more things and is more fun. after a lot of uproar, admit it. you have a favorite kid. i do. bishop wrote he doesn't love either of his sons more than the other. he just likes them different lif. there's liking them different land the word favorite is pretty much a neutron bomb in parenting. >> a a father. >> i would never pick one out of the other. left the money from ben & jerryfor the psychotherapy these
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kids are going to need. given it to him. >> different feels be but isn't necessarily i like one more than the other. >> i like, he wrote this. the weird thing about what he said. swun younger and can't do as much, will grow up and do cool things. a weird dad thi. i like the older, he can throw a ball. >>aid to talk for long time. sometimes you say stuff -- >> treated a little, the original position. >> from the parents, they certainly like different kids at different times more. when we were younger, i used to say to my brother, my brother is my favorite. now i am definitely the favorite. my mom tell meese this all the time, but i make an effort to be the favorite. i call her a lot more, but i think when ey're younger, you can't say that to the kid because not only does it create this dynamic with the parent but between the siblings. >> a table of favorite children here. goes without saying right now.
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thanks, guys. ahead on "starting point," millions of patients with health insurance, overworked doctors and nurses. a new film trying to capture the current state of our health care system with a portrait of one public e.r. the director will join us. you're watching "starting point." conversations help us learn and grow. at wells fargo, we believe you can never underestimate the power of a conversation. it's this exchange of ideas that helps you move ahead with confidence. so when the conversation turns to your financial goals... turn to us. if you need anything else, let me know. [ female announcer ] wells fargo. together we'll go far. droid does. and does it launch apps by voice while learning your voice ? launch cab4me. droid does. keep left at the fork. does it do turn-by-turn navigation ?
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i've been fortunate to win on golf's biggest stages. but when joint pain and stiffness from psoriatic arthritis hit, even the smallest things became difficult. i finally understood what serious joint pain is like. i talked to my rheumatologist and he prescribed enbrel. enbrel can help relieve pain, stiffness, and stop joint damage. because enbrel, etanercept, suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure,
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or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. [ phil ] get back to the things that matter most. ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. [ doctor ] enbrel, the number one biolog medicine prescribed by rheumatologists. welcome back to "starting point." a look at your top stories. tens of thousands of demonstrators take to the streets of athens, greece, demanding an end to severe budget cuts. police in right gear confronts protesters. sick of the austerity measures allows some meaning a lower standard of living for the average greek citizen. and president obama and mitt romney are campaigning in ohio.
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they're both holding rallies there today. looking live at a romney rally in westerville. stops in cleveland and toledo also and there is good reason for that. ohio offers 18 electoral votes. get ready for it. no republican has ever been elected president without also winning ohio. not good news for mitt romney. a new poll out showing president obama up by ten points in ohio. 23457 is a big round number. the fbi is joined in the search for a missing northwestern university student. straight a pre-med student disappeared over the weekend after attein off-campus. police say they don't have any lead yet. the pentagon issued rules how to handle no easy day. that's the unauthorized account of bin laden's takedown written by one of the neal s.e.a.avy s.o shot him. allowing pentagon work toers buy the book and they do not have to store it away as classified information. but also they are not allowed to speculate or discuss potentially
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classified and sensitive unclassified information with people who don't have an official need to know. clear that up for me. >> all right. ever wish you could make sure there won't be any crying babies on nor next flight? always my children. air asia started advertising a quiet zone starting this february. the first seven rows reserved exclusively for passengers ages 12 and up. does that mean -- does that mean i can leave my kids in the back of the plane? talking about it for days. tackled in a new song parody. ♪ got a call from roger goodell, want to ref the nfl ♪ ♪ a wish and thank the commish, who cares i'm on my way ♪ ripped jerseys, skin showing ♪
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♪ this call no whistle blowing, which way is the ball going, save me ♪ say, i just met you, it was crazy ♪ >> the latest on the summer hit "call me maybe" it's called "call it maybe." >> and in for soledad -- >> take it to management. >> botch the game yet today as badly as they did. the future of health care reform could hang in the balance of this year's election. now a new documentary takes an insider's look what it's like in a hospital when patient it's insurance. "starting point" back in a moment. [ male announcer ] with a driving range
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welcome back to "starting point." president obama passed a health care plan. mitt romney vows to appeal it in elected. providing insight how public hospitals and insurance companies interact and how that affects patient care. >> you have to look at the frustrations of one family member in a waiting room in a hospital in oakland, california, where most patients don't have insurance. >> have so many on the same, that means the same level of -- >> what about growing up? >> you don't know the -- >> i don't know. i don't know. i don't. >> we got them all until triage. >> he got a bullet from two days ago. don't feel good and he's numb. >> pass it on to one of the -- make him take a look see what he can do. there's just no way to please everybody. >> the movie is called "the waiting room."
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director, cinematographer, everything else, peter nix, joining us. a gun shot wound wasn't enough to get the patient to the top of the list. how can that be? >> ironically, one of the things that presses up against the weight in a waiting room are very serious emergencies. like gunshot wounds, heart attacks, strokes, things of that nature. this particular guy was shot a couple days earlier and was coming back because his wound is bothering him. but he comes in, against other emergencies that creates the tension in the emergency room, not just life threatening emergency rooms but people flooding the emergency room seeking care, basically. >> take people with no insurance. how it works in the country. it comes at a time where there's a debate about ongoing health care in this country. mitt romney in a "60 minutes" interview was asked, going to an
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emergency room is an option for the uninsured. listen to that clip quickly. >> does the government have a responsibility to provide health care to the 50 million american whose don't have it today? >> well, we do provide care for people who don't have insurance. people -- if someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment and die. we pick them up in an ambulance and take them to the hospital, and give them care. and different states have different ways of providing for that care. >> for those people you were profiling there are in your film, was that their only option, that particular waiting room in that particular hospital and that level of care? >> for the vast majority of the community, it's the only place they know where to go. the safety net system, the last resorts in oakland and all over the country. there are a patchwork of clinics you can go to but for the most part, highland has the ability to the deal with factors like language. a lot of people go to hospitals
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and need interpreters. they have relationships that go back generations with the hospital. ba basically, the only place to go to get that he of care. >> what is the if it in the greater debate about health care in this country? >> i think white now we're really questions what is the role of the safety net moving forward? and what we wanted to try to do, shine a light on what is happening on the ground level at safety net hospitals around the country, because as the debate around the health care issue is heated up, the people whose voices have kind of been left out of it are the people on the ground level, and not just the patients but the caregivers. >> in ex-chaichange for health insurance and people are fined for not having it, is the care going to be different in two years? >> we don't know a lot of answers to a lot of those questions and with health reform not fully implemented until 2014, the role of public
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hospitals is in question. what is happening in our public hospitals? what needs to change? this question of, this is care that you can get, if you don't have insurance. the de facto care that people will get as sponsored by the government or the states. is this acceptable? >> how did obama care affect this? how did it address the problem? did you document it at all? >> it hasn't really gotten into effect yet. i think there's speculation, hue will obama care affect highland hospital? a big problem in customer service, because in theory people will have options under the new law not to have to go to a place like highland. so they're very focused on customer service. that nurse, for instance, featured in the movie is the quintessential sort of, you know, customer service representative. >> that's what i thoht was so interesting, reading about the film. because you kind of think of these public opts, oh, they're not going to get the same level of care, but these people are very dedicated.
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some of them are some of the best trained in the country and they choose to work in these type of, you know, grill environments. >> and it's a group that actually has one of the highest rates in the country. you get the best medical students in the country are going to places like highland. because the types of disease and illness you see there are, you know, almost like third world country-type disease, because people don't go to the hospital, because they don't want to get a bill. they wait very long. they don't have primary care doctors's so they wait a long time. by the time they get to the hospital they're very, very sick. >> right. >> it's a self-selecting group. a bit like a m.a.s.h. unit. a lot of those nurses are some the community. c.j., queen of the waiting room. knows a lot of these people. her friends, her neighbors. >> the film "the waiting room" opens nationwide in the coming weeks. thanks. next on "starting point," cyndi lauper. her iconic hit almost didn't get
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made. and she didn't even want to sing it. history would have been changed forever, next.
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♪ my mother says when you gonna live your life right ♪ oh, mama, dear ♪ >> welcome back to "starting point." you can't fwheet. grammy winning pop legend cyndi lauper has lived the title of her '80s hit song "girls just wanna have fun" more than 30 million records and still at it today. >> and soledad got to sit down with her this week to talk about her new autobiography. >> the first show i did as cyndi lauper, a solo artist up in
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poughkeepsie. there were 14 people in the club. >> really? >> but i did the encore and i killed them. and the owner -- the owner came back and he said, listen, you know i was even worried there for a while when you took the ukulele out but you did great, kid. you did great. >> talk to me about "girls just wanna have fun." you didn't want to do it at first. thought the lyrics were -- >> honestly it was written by a man for a man. for a woman to sing it, it's got to change a little. ♪ wanna have fun girls ♪ >> after everything i'd been through, i kind of didn't want to sing it and rick said to me, well, listen, just take a minute and think about what it could mean. i saw my mother's face. i saw my grandmother's face. i saw my aunt's face. these are women firsthand that i knew had been disenfranchised. they didn't have a shot at
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having any sort of a dream. >> the song became an anthem. >> good. >> you know -- >> it was fun. when we did the video, all my friends came to the studio. all the hairdressers that i mu from vidal sassoon came. in the video. everybody helped everybody, and it was all of my friends and friends of friends. i was so fortunate, and it's a little snapshot of them. >> you seem very conflicted in this book about your success, and sometimes very conflicted about, i think, the sexism ill. you write a lot about sort of the -- the unfairness, i think. >> well, i don't know. well, i didn't just write about unfairness. i wrote about the way it was. i didn't write it that i thought it was unfair. i just wrote that that's what it was. >> you have become, early on in your career, became a big gay icon, and very vocal about
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rights for people with aids, with hiv. why was that? >> well, the hiv thing happened as hiv happened, and it robbed us of a lot of talented people. i still have friends living with aids, and it's not easy. and, yeah. i want to talk about prevention, because aids now, you have to understand, is 100% preventible, but, really, 100% non-curable. it's good to discuss prevention. you could preach abstinence. is that the drink? wait. >> abstinence. what would you like people to take from this memoir? >> that if you're open, life will teach you stuff. that sometimes if you don't get it right the first time, it comes back again until you get
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it right, if you notice. and -- that you should share your story. >> so cool. the end point is next. i love cash back.
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it is time for our "end point" now. jim? >> i think for the rest of the week the big news is going to be the u.n. general 'ably, for foreign policy ppl

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